The limited edition L’Occitane Pivoine Flora Color Cream Rose blush and highlighter, $16. Available now at L’Occitane stores, counters and also online.
L’Occitane Pivoine Flora Color Cream Rose
Archives for May 2011
I Think I’ll Take a Sunbath with Lancome Star Bronzer Natural Matte in 03
I guess Lancome really wanted to cover all of their bronzing bases this summer because they released a whopping six Star Bronzers ($35 each) — three with their Natural Matte finish, and three with a finish called Natural Glow.
Gotta love having a wide range of options, right? Especially when it comes with a cool design on the pan.
One option, however, that Lancome did not include with these is a less expensive one, as $35 seems like a lot (the MAC Bronzing Powders cost $23; Urban Decay Baked Bronzers, $26).
For these, Lancome used a blend of mineral pigments and something they call “absorbent micro-spheres,” which is fancy talk for something that’s supposed to keep them looking and feeling smooth for a long time. I gotta say, the shade I tried, Natural Matte in 03 Sunbath, does look and feel pretty great — silky, and not heavy or chalky at all. It’s a warm orangey brown with red undertones, and I’m a little surprised by how much I like it, considering the finish is matte (I usually prefer bronzers with a little shimmer because I think it makes them easier to use).
I Raise My Teacup to Elizabeth Arden Green Tea Lavender Eau de Toilette Spray
Don’t you just love the sound of silence? I caught a few minutes of it this afternoon while staring out the window by my desk. I was watching the branches of a tall oak tree silently sway in a breeze I couldn’t hear at all because the house was all buttoned up with the windows and doors shut. It was both beautiful and awesomely weird, like someone had turned down the volume on a reality show starring me. 🙂
But then El Hub came thundering down the stairs with a load of laundry in his arms, boom-boom-boom! Tabs magically appeared, “Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow!” Then the washing machine, the dishwasher, a gas-powered blower outside? El Hub coughing and tearing open a package of something in the kitchen — for the love of Pete, man, what is that sound?! Add to all of that every other sound that makes up the background music of my busy little life suddenly turned up to 10 at the very same time, and I can’t help but wonder if the silence I’d heard was ever real at all.
Le sigh…
If, by chance, I ever hear that kind of silence again, there’s a high probability you’ll find me somewhere quietly sighing with relief and spraying Elizabeth Arden’s Green Tea Lavender ($29 for a 1.7-oz. bottle) in the air.
I’m surprised El Hub hasn’t asked me to chill out with this stuff because I’ve been spritzing it on myself lately like it’s my side job.
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L’Occitane Pivoine Flora Eye Quartet
The limited edition L’Occitane Pivoine Flora Eye Quartet ($26), available now at L’Occitane stores, counters and online.
Two Ways to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora!
- WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is mkdallas! Congratulations, mkdallas! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
Guess who’s upset about not being able to exercise yesterday? Wait — there are two correct answers to that question, but the one I had in mind when I wrote it was Tabs. I meant to take him for a walk in the afternoon, but time got away from me. Now I think he’s fussy because he’s pacing around the house from open window to window, occasionally grumbling under his breath. It would be cute if he wasn’t also my boss. 🙂
Yes, sir, I’ll take you for a walk in a few minutes just as soon as I get your dry cleaning and prepare your gravy.
In other news, good morning, young lady. As the Hawaiian’s say, “howzit?” Are you having a good weekend so far? Except for some Tabs maintenance, I plan to take it slow and easy today. No, not because of the rapture. I’m just not in the mood to do anything anyone could potentially misconstrue as work, haha!
I’m a little giddy right now, ironically because I haven’t had a sip of coffee or tea yet this morning. I’m giddy because it means I’m about to have one now, and I can tell it’s going to be glorious. GLORIOUS!!!
Whoa! — would you look at that? It’s…
- One (1) Sephora eGift card containing $50 sent to the winner by email (or $50 sent by PayPal instead).
- There are two ways to enter, and you can do both of them for two chances to win. First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, a comment about anything at all, like, what’s your favorite material possession (the one thing you would grab in the event of a disaster)? What’s your favorite soft drink? Have you ever given a television interview? Do you believe in alien life? Who makes your favorite lip gloss? — you get the idea.
- Second, you can enter by following me on
Twitter @karenmbb and retweeting (RT) the following message:
- Follow @karenmbb and RT to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora! http://bit.ly/ituOjQ
- The deadline to enter is Sunday, May 22, 2011 at 11:59PM (PT).
- Entrants must enter using a valid email address and/or Twitter account to win.
- A maximum of two (2) entries per person — one within the comments at the bottom of this post, and a second entry via Twitter addressed to me @karenmbb.
- Contest is open to individuals of any country who have reached the age of majority according to their local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
- Sephora eGift Certificates can only be redeemed online and are not valid in stores or available for purchase or redemption in Canada. The winner may opt to substitute the Sephora eGift card prize for $50 sent directly to their email address by PayPal.
- Tabs and I (heretofore referred to as “T-Money and K-Dawg”) will select one (1) winner at random from the entries either left in the comments at the bottom of this blog post or addressed to @karenmbb on Twitter.
- The winner will be announced here within 48 hours of the deadline.
- Void where prohibited by law.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
- WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is mkdallas! Congratulations, mkdallas! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
The New Buxom Lip Tarnish Plumping & Moisturizing Lip Stains Want to Wow You in 4 Different Ways
I don’t remember much from my brief stint in community theater as Misc. Shark Girl #3 in West Side Story, but I do remember how during auditions people would whisper about the “triple threats,” and how it was, like, a big deal to be one.
Sounds thuggish, right? — a triple threat! In theater parlance, it’s what they call someone who can sing, dance and act. Of course, I was barely able to do one of the three (I could dance a little)…but I also had long black hair that from far away helped me pass for Puerto Rican. Score! 🙂
Like multi-talented stage stars, Buxom’s new Lip Tarnish Plumping & Moisturizing Lip Stains ($18) want to do it all. Blackmail (a blackberry truffle), Busted (a cherry red), Caught on Tape (a hot pink) and Wardrobe Malfunction (a candy pink) go on sale exclusively at Sephora this August, and they hope to lavish lips in not three but FOUR different ways, tinting like a lip stain, shining like a gloss, hydrating like a lip balm and plumping like…something that plumps.
From the left: Caught on Tape, Blackmail, Wardrobe Malfunction and Busted
Swatches from the left: Wardrobe Malfunction, Caught on Tape, Busted and Blackmail
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Lancome Kissed By Gold: Should You Have Designs on this Summer Shadow & Liner Palette?
I wonder how peacocks feel about Lancome’s shimmery Color Design Shadow & Liner Palette in Kissed By Gold ($48). Perhaps I should ask the one that cruises the walkways where my in-laws live near verdant Haiku Gardens. He’s such a show-off, that bird, always flaunting his glossy feathers for all the world to see (sometimes from the back of pickup trucks!). I guess I can’t blame him, really. I’d probably do the same thing if my feathers shined like that. 🙂
I bet he’d still be a little jealous, though, of Kissed By Gold’s approach to these classic, summery shades because something tells me these shimmery bronzes, golds, pinks and browns would look lovely on tail feathers (and tanned skin).
The palette is one of the latest additions to Lancome’s line of Color Design Shadow & Liner Palettes, a family of color-coordinated eye palettes released earlier this year, and it’s one of the shiniest high-pigment palettes this particular bird has seen in a while.
Even though there’s also a matte here, it’s the shimmery shadows that steal the show. On skin they glow like peacock feathers (in a more neutral palette) and polished chrome, and I’m reminded of the mirror finish of an Urban Decay shadow sprinkled with a dash of elegant Dior.
The moment my brush met the first highly pigmented pan I called “DAY-UM!” out loud. Not only do they look great, but they also blend in the blink of an eye! Seriously, if basic eyeshadow colors are like day-old coffee, then these are like espresso brewed by gold medal baristas — intense, rich and opaque.
After playing with the Kissed By Gold yesterday morning, I decided to collect EVERY SINGLE PALETTE from the line…
Go Drag or Go Home: A Mascara Combo for Dramatically Longer, Thicker Lashes
Well look at you, eagle eye cutie pie. 🙂 You discovered my latest lash secret. I’ve been asked a few times over the past couple of days about what I’m wearing on my lashes, and yes, I’ve been trying something new.
When it comes to lashes, for me it’s GO DRAG OR GO HOME! I’m flat-out wild about that dramatic false lash look, ya know? — the longer and more voluminous, the better. That’s why I’m so stoked about my current combo, which adds mad crazy length and lots of thickness at the base. And the best part? I discovered it by accident!
One day last week I had on two layers of Urban Decay Cannonball Waterproof Mascara ($20) on my top lashes, and one on the bottom. Even though Cannonball smudges a tad, it stretches my lashes to their lengthening limits and cures the curl from my lash curler (Shu know the one), so I readily accepted the tradeoff.
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